Almost turned a customer away today.

[mk]

yeah i know thats all i had to work with, roadkill got tags for it obviously.  but yeah, just make use of what you have looks kinda cool i thought.

[dbl.throat_patch]

MK,  that is a beautiful mount!!  Actually you have started to make the gears turn in my head with that.  I guess I need to start thinking outside the box.  You have open my eyes to literally 100's of ways to make his mount look nice,  with what he's got.  I appreciate you posting that.  Nice Job!!

[Samantha.]

I've done a few neck mounts and while they are not my favorite thing to do, customers down here just wont accept, let alone pay for replacement capes.
I dont know why, thats just the way they are.
No point turning them away to go else where. I just do the best I can at full shoulder mount prices.

Although I have managed to 'turn away' the odd boar, cut off at the head with the ears ripped like ribbons from dogs. 
The guys dont like the idea of paying full shoulder price plus a repair fee for the ears.

[RATTRAP]

well it happened again, I have another head mount to do. One came in today. if it was a big deer then maybe up sell but its not. So I told them this.

I can do a europeon and showed them a cleaned bleched skull for $135.00 or we can find a replacement cape and your get the cape or I will find one and only charge what I pay for it. and do a shoulder mount for $435.00  (they did not have the extra money times are tight) or I can do a headmount for $325.00 or an antler plaque for $125.00 on Oak or walnut or if you get a panel for $75.00

They took the head mount.. at $325.00 Lets see. I have a head laying around I changed out, so no from (if I had to buy a changeout head $15.00 plus shipping 10 for eyes and 35 for a eurpoen plaque assembly.. 290 or there about for a head mount and you will not do IT??

Send it my way.

http://www.vandykestaxidermy.com/category/wood-panels

You talk about taxidermy whores and look, you have missed the money and pissed someone off because you have standard and its darn bet your work is not much better than mine..

Now look at this do you like someone upselling you at McD's? or someone saying they can do work for you at 500 bucks then once they do it saying they need more money???

Who is the whore..and who is the businessman..  $290. will buy me a hell of a lot of steak aqnd yes we eat steak three times per week and my ldl and hdl combined is just 151.

I have a happy custopmer who will have their mount, even though I dont like the idea and you will have a poed customer because you wanted more money.. You guys in your first five years or so may not be in this business next year.. In the mean time we are looking at options for expansion.. So someone must like what happens.

Do you turn down a fish even though  it has an boghead or a bird because it has a leg shot off or a wing broken???

Make it look good and it will pay. These head mounts are not mangy yotes,, its someone who made a mistake and you are trying to screw them over.

John,

I'm interested in seeing what one of your head mounts on a european plaque assembly looks like.  That's thinking outside the box!  Do you have a picture to share?

[coonhollow]

I still will not do a neck mount, my personal opinion and preference. I had a guy bring me a small black bear and wanted it holding a beer can He was insisting that is what he wanted so I referred him to go elsewhere. I refused to do that also! I still got the bear to mount and I'll bet he wont be holding a beer either!
MK your mount looks nice! I have to agree. And that's not the normal deer you can easily replace the cape for being a summer deer.
I would replace the cape on any deer brought to me that was legally taken in a time I can obtain a cape. And depending on circumstances I probably wouldn't charge any more than $20-$30 for the replacement.
But if I do get someone who wants one done I will send them to taxinet

[George Roof]

coonhollow, now you're off on a tangent.  A bear with a beer can or antlers has NOTHING to do with this conversation.  That goes back to my post of "within reason" and things that would degrade the animal.  As I said, your principle haven't effected your belly yet.  When and if that happens, your elitist attitude will probably whore out like any sensible taxidermists would. 

I posted this earlier, but it's a HEAD MOUNT that has a story behind it.  The hunter wanted a "rug" of the hide and simply cut the head off and tossed it.  As it was a private hunt club in an old cabin with no mounts, I retrieved the head and mounted it and gave it to my dad who'd pleaded with the guy to have it mounted in the first place.  When dad got the mount, he took it to the club and the guy wanted to claim it saying that his skin had rotted before he got it to a taxidermist. Dad told him that the mount wasn't for sale and took it back home with him.  (It was done nearly 30 years ago with dry preservative so go ahead and have a chuckle.) I've done a kid's "first buck" this way as well when the butcher "forgot" the boy wanted his first mounted and cut the head off.

[coonhollow]

I agree George, You couldn't replace a piebald deer cape to begin with. and I would mount a deer for a boy especially if it was his first. I would offer to give him a replacement cape also.
and to be honnest I have mounted deer for kids that their parents couldn't afford to get it done for them and all I would ask was to have them come work in the shop for me and it would normally consist of having them help me set their antlers, prep their form etc..and some others just so they could be involved.
Me mounting a deer on a neck form has nothing to do with being hungry or in need of money in my opinion I feel I would lose out in the end just for the simple fact that taxidermy has evolved over the years from paper, neck, inaccurate forms to:
 full shoulder, wall pedestal, pedestal, steppin out, and all the other specialty mounts.
customers are more educated today than years ago, and I will bet the buddy's of the guy that gets a neck mount done first words will be "who did that"

[Redwolf]

Just tell them to bring you a coyote and a crow

[coonhollow]

lol

[Burrhead]

Redwolfe that looks good. Yote eating a deer, crow flies, pisses yote off...that took imagination. With imagination, we can make a lot of cool things from junk...that is why I did a pedestal mount when the cape was cut short and filled in with greenery and moss, which is native here in SC...it looked good, the girl who killed it as her first buck was thrilled, and I had money in my pocket for it..actually charged more than I do for a regualr shoulder mount